History on Honda’s side for second part of MotoGP™ season

Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner have asserted themselves as the championship favourites just after the season’s halfway point. As the teams and riders indulge in a well-deserved summer break, motogp.com takes a close look at who of the three "aliens" has history on his side as the world title pursuit gathers pace.

With eight rounds to go there is still everything to play for, with a potential 200 points still up for grabs. And looking back as far as 2008, the year in which Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo and the Repsol Honda Team duo of Pedrosa and Stoner were all untied in the premier-class, it appears that the current Australian world champion has history on his side.

In the last four seasons he has taken a combined 12 wins at the majority of upcoming tracks including Indianapolis, Brno, Misano, Aragón (since 2010), Motegi, Sepang, Philip Island and Valencia. This, compared to Lorenzo’s five and Pedrosa’s four, should make him the odds on favourite to take solid chunk of points towards retaining his crown.

Yet the wins themselves do not tell the full story. Pedrosa has in fact taken the highest number of podiums with 17, whilst Stoner and Lorenzo have both achieved 15 each. This means that despite Stoner’s dominance, the Spanish duo has never been far off, giving promise to a thrilling end to the season.

Whilst Pedrosa and Lorenzo have been quite consistent across the board, Stoner has dominated two tracks in particular – Aragón in Spain, and his home race at Philip Island in Australia. He has won both races held so far at the Spanish track, whilst in Philip Island he has not been beaten since 2007. The only three tracks where the riders can boast a victory each in their combined premier-class time are Indianapolis, Motegi and Valencia.